Ashley Judd plays a successful lawyer with a great
marriage. At least it appeared to be a great marriage until one day
when her husband was unexpectedly arrested and hauled off in the
middle of Christmas shopping by about a dozen heavily armed federal
agents. The arrest occurred because of a Marine Corps accusation that
hubby is actually a completely different man, a deserter who
slaughtered some villagers in El Salvador more than a decade earlier.

I can't tell you much more without betraying the
surprises in the plot. Judd resolves to defend her husband, hires an
associate who understands military justice (Morgan Freeman), and the
investigation is on. The plot hinges on (1) whether Judd's husband is
who the USMC says he is (2) who actually murdered those villagers (3)
why the village was invaded by American soldiers in the first place.

In the course of the investigation and trial, Judd
seems to be targeted by a military conspiracy as well as by the
relatives of the people who were killed that day. She can't seem to
trust anyone. The attorney assigned to her husband by the Corps seems
to be part of the conspiracy. The witnesses all seem to have died or
have been asked to lie. The judge seems to discard critical and
irrefutable evidence. The conspiracy seems to go up very high, to a
general whose stature seems to be comparable to that of Colin Powell.

NUDITY REPORT

None. It could easily have been an R-rated movie,
but it was edited carefully to facilitate a PG-13, even though
there are several sexy scenes and teases.

Ashley Judd appears braless in a t-shirt,
wearing shorts that show the bottom of her buns.

Amanda Peet appears in t-shirts and a
skimpy bikini bottom twice, and her coat comes open once to
reveal some of her breast, but no nipple.

Two hookers come close to exposure in deep
cleavage and short shorts.

There is a scene in a stripper bar, but it
is filmed to avoid exposure.

I enjoyed the film as it was developing, but when all
the mysteries had unraveled, I thought back on it and realized that
some of the points along the way didn't seem to make sense once the
solution was known. Some details seemed to be there only to distract
us, like magician's patter.

On the other hand,
I re-watched the film and found that the simple undeniable solution to
the mystery was buried early in the film in an innocent moment. I like
that. To me the earmark of a good mystery is that you can solve it if
you really pay attention to all the details. That's a plus, even
though I missed that detail the first time through.

There is another big plus. Although the script is
full of the kind of contrivances and red herrings that typically mark
the genre, the cast and crew pull it all of with brio, centered around
director Carl Franklin, and the two main stars, Ashley Judd and Morgan
Freeman. If you like this kind of film, you'll find that everyone
works to deliver this one with consummate professionalism.

with their dollars: the studio had high
hopes for their 442 million investment, and opened it on a
near-blockbuster level of 2700 screens. Its performance was
mediocre. It did a solid but unspectacular $42 million
domestic gross, and will probably settle in as a break-even
type of film unless it scores big in the rental market.

IMDb
guideline: 7.5 usually indicates a level of
excellence, about like three and a half stars
from the critics. 6.0 usually indicates lukewarm
watchability, about like two and a half stars
from the critics. The fives are generally not
worthwhile unless they are really your kind of
material, about like two stars from the critics.
Films under five are generally awful even if you
like that kind of film, equivalent to about one
and a half stars from the critics or less,
depending on just how far below five the rating
is.

My own
guideline: A means the movie is so good it
will appeal to you even if you hate the genre. B means the movie is not
good enough to win you over if you hate the
genre, but is good enough to do so if you have an
open mind about this type of film. C means it will only
appeal to genre addicts, and has no crossover
appeal. D means you'll hate it even if you
like the genre. E means that you'll hate it even if
you love the genre. F means that the film is not only
unappealing across-the-board, but technically
inept as well.

Based on this description, this
film is a C+. Not original or groundbreaking, but a solid,
workmanlike thriller with good stars and pacing.